Series

Current art and performance series at Elastic

Improvised Music Series

The Thursday-night Improvised Music Series, curated by saxophonist Dave Rempis, began in April of 2002 at EAF’s original home, 3030, and moved to Elastic in April of 2006. The series has featured hundreds of concerts by internationally known improvisers including Roscoe Mitchell, Joe McPhee, Peter Brotzmann, Evan Parker, Fred Anderson, Hamid Drake, John Tchicai, Nicole Mitchell, Ken Vandermark, Matthew Shipp, Jim Black, Paal Nilssen-Love, John Hollenbeck, Steve Swell, Rob Mazurek, Kevin Drumm, Paul Lytton, Axel Dörner, Joe Morris, and many more. Aside from these impressive visitors, the true mission of the series is to feature up-and-coming local improvisers, allowing a regular space where they can develop their music and ideas. A number of musicians who have been regularly featured since the inception of the series have truly come into their own as world-renowned voices in the music, including players such as Josh Berman, Jason Adasiewicz, Tim Daisy, Paul Giallorenzo, Jeb Bishop, Frank Rosaly, James Falzone, Jason Roebke, Aram Shelton, Mike Reed, and many more.

In addition to the weekly series, Elastic hosted two three-night festivals of improvised music in 2003-2004, and since 2006 has been a partner in producing the Umbrella Music Festival each fall. This festival is curated by the collaborative work of Umbrella Music, a group of musicians and presenters working to provide concert opportunities for creative and improvising musicians throughout Chicago. Partner venues include the Hideout, The Hungry Brain, and The Chicago Cultural Center.

Elastic Hip-Hop Series

The Elastic Hip-Hop Series, curated by EAF cofounder Sam Lewis, was created to provide "underground" local, regional, national & international hip-hop artists a quality venue in which to perform in the Chicago area. attracting a multi-cultural, crowd of various backgrounds. We also record every show, and give it to the performers, free of charge, as an effort to inspire the artists to attempt greater self-promotion and also assist them with self-critique and fine-tuning of their craft. Since March 2006, Elastic Arts has produced over 150 hip-hop shows that have featured artists from: Chicago, DeKalb, Rockford, Minneapolis, Saint Louis, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Texas & Seattle.

The Hip-Hop series has partnered with Chicago Hip-Hop Initiative in presenting various programs during the month July, which is Chicago Hip-Hop Heritage month.

Elastro Electro-Acoustic Series

Launched in November 2003 by musician and EAF co-founder Paul Giallorenzo, Elastro is an ongoing electro/acoustic music series showcasing local, national, and international musicians. In particular, there is an emphasis toward presenting electro/acoustic music that is produced live in a transparent process, such that is it both sonically stimulating and visually performative; we encourage performances that engage the audience with live sound creation utilizing crossover between digital, electro-mechanical, and real-time acoustic-processing realms.

Homeroom Singer/Songwriter Series

Presented by Homeroom, The Songwriter Showcase and Open Mic focuses on the craft of songwriting.  The event is hosted by Justin Petertil of Loveraid and Office.  Each event features two songwriters who discuss their influences, history and songwriting process in addition performing their original work.  The event begins with an open mic, and there is a piano and guitar available.  The event serves as a dialogue amoung songwriters and audiences, and sing alongs are always encouraged.

Visual Series

After moving to Elastic in 2006, EAF began displaying regular visual art exhibitions, in addition to video screenings and multimedia performances. Elastic Vision Gallery exhibits work by Chicago-based 2-D artists at all levels in their careers. For information on submitting a galleryproposal, click here.

December 2011 - January 2012


Jordan Martins, "Strange Attractions"

Strange Attractions is a project based the Chicago-specific tradition of hand-painted, block-letter grocery signs which have come to be associated with Hispanic markets.   By exaggerating the expressive colors and gestural rhythms of the original signs,  Jordan aims to build patterns that simultaneously attract (fluorescent colors, bold shapes) and conceal (by undermining legibility). In this sense he sees them relating both to natural camouflage and bright plumage used by animals to attract mates, or broader notions of visual stimuli to affect or sculpt behaviour.

This project is partially supported by a Community Arts Assistance Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

Elastic Vision Gallery exhibits work by Chicago-based 2-D artists at all levels in their careers.

To submit an exhibition proposal, click here.